the day after the blizzard of 2015, it's understandable that nobody wanted to move their cars. but when i woke up this morning, i saw that the spot right in front of my house was empty. however, in its place was a chair! this neighborhood has never used space savers. the curb belongs to everyone, nobody owns the curb. but moments later i saw that the chair was removed. all was right with the world again. unfortunately sometime later, an adjacent car drove away, and in its place the driver had put a chair. oh no!

with this much snow, it takes a few days to completely dig out. today i worked on expanding the sidewalk and digging out a path through the backyard to the basement. i could've also cleared the snow from the backyard deck, but first my upstairs neighbors have to clean out their floor first before i want work on mine (otherwise all their snow falls on me and i have to clear out twice). while i was at it, i also cleared away some snow from the two empty parking spots directly in front of my house. whoever dug them out didn't do a thorough job, leaving snow banks that will eventually solidify if not removed.

one thing i wanted to do was to take a total snowfall measurement. but with the snow being so light and the winds create snow drifts, it was hard to know which snow-covered area of the backyard was the most accurate spot to measure. i found an area that seemed to be right in the middle - not too low, not too high. the measurement in my cambridge backyard: 23in. i heard the official snowfall total for boston was 24.6in, the 6th largest snowstorm ever.

paul seemed to be home but spent the day hiding in the house instead of helping me dig. when steve came home, i heard the two of them clearing snow from the backyard deck. they shoveled everywhere except my deck. would it have killed them to do that as well? i did after all clear the sidewalk and the backyard. it's not a big deal, there's just a bit of snow i can probably clean off with a broom.

all this shoveling the past week has rendered my right arm (particularly my forearm) in a sore state. i probably also need to get a new shovel at some point: the one that i'm using, the handle is loose, and the metal blade is about to fall off.

i had some cereal for breakfast in the late morning, then got hungry enough in the late afternoon to heat up a pair of hot dogs. for dinner i made a prosciutto vodka sauce with rotini. that was probably the wrong choice of pasta (penne is the ideal pairing). it wasn't that good (the canned crushed tomato i used had too much herbs, the vodka was old) but filling.